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Baton Rouge girls hope to break gender disparity in STEM careers

Baton Rouge girls pursuing STEM careersStatistics show that many young girls in the United States don't choose careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, but there's recently been a push in Baton Rouge to introduce more girls to the male-dominated industries.

Statistics
show that many young girls in the United States don't choose careers in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, but there's recently
been a push in Baton Rouge to introduce more girls to the male-dominated
industries.

Experts say the key to increasing the number
of women in STEM careers is to expose girls to the idea early.

"Part of what we're trying to do is expose
them to these kinds of opportunities when they're young, so that when they
start thinking about it when they're in middle school, when they're in high
school, they can take the kind of course work that would prepare them to be
successful in post-secondary education," explained Janet Pace, executive director
for the foundation of East Baton Rouge School System.

Pace said the nonprofit school management
system recently added chess and robotics initiatives to help
develop problem solving, creativity and other skills.

More initiatives like that, ExxonMobil's
"Introduce a girl to engineering day," and Baton Rouge's Future
City competition will likely show up in the near future to help address the
gender disparity in STEM careers.

Although
women make up about 48 percent of the US workforce, they only comprise about 24
percent of workers in STEM careers. Women
receive more than 60 percent of all undergraduate college degrees, yet only 11
percent of computer science degrees.

Bringing
more women to STEM careers is especially important in Louisiana where a booming
petrochemical industry is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. The
need for a qualified workforce in Louisiana has been a top concern for state
and industry officials after dozens of new projects were been announced over
the last couple of years.

BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp said
that the 15 projects announced in 2013 are expected to bring in $112.5 million in permanent
direct payroll. An estimated total of $190 million in direct permanent payroll
is expected for projects announced in the last two years.

Women will
be a key piece to solving the workforce dilemma, according to Amanda Root, an engineer at
ExxonMobil. "We really need a lot of workers (in the petrochemical industry),
and to bring those girls in to help fill those positions is going to be a great
asset to everybody."